{"id":121,"date":"2015-10-16T19:43:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T19:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/?p=121"},"modified":"2015-10-17T00:52:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T00:52:00","slug":"stepping-out-of-the-horseradish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/adamcaplan\/2015\/10\/16\/stepping-out-of-the-horseradish\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Out of the Horseradish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember summer?<\/h3>\n

How softly it shut<\/a>!\u00a0\u00a0Now, we\u00a0find ourselves\u00a0waking\u00a0up at the usual time \u2013 usual\u00a0for school \u2013 with the sunrise\u00a0suddenly missing, and it strikes in\u00a0discord\u00a0against\u00a0the light within! I feel better\u00a0knowing\u00a0that\u00a0it\u2019s time to\u00a0start again with a new team of coaches for another great year of Cohort 21. I couldn\u2019t be more excited!<\/p>\n

\"\"My\u00a0year of learning so far as been influenced\u00a0by a few characters, each representative\u00a0of an idea that impacts teaching and my work with our teachers. I\u2019ll refer to each idea\u00a0individually, but know that they all\u00a0connect to the importance of Community for cohesion, connectedness and learning.<\/p>\n

I also want to state, as if something that\u2019s written should be taken as true<\/a>, that I aspire to stop talking about Technology<\/em>. It feels lazy. Chairs are technology. Indoor lighting is technology. Pencils are technology, especially the clicky ones<\/a> or the ones with multiple lead capsules<\/a>. Paper is also technology, and we are effective\u00a0at outsourcing (and taking for granted) the arboriculturists, and the pulp and paper processes.<\/p>\n

So I want to be clear about what I mean when I talk about integrating technology<\/em> or digital tools<\/em>, and make sure we aren\u2019t missing each other; that those who contribute to the\u00a0conversations about technology &\u00a0learning<\/em> are using language that refers to specific things or ideas. \u00a0I feel\u00a0driven to delve into the semantics of discourse on \u2018Technology and Teaching\u2019,\u00a0and help zoom in on the available spaces in the relationship between digital technologies, innovative teaching, skills and content for students, and the best possible attitudes for teachers and school leaders<\/em>\u00a0today. There are many opportunities\u00a0for positive change in these spaces.<\/p>\n

If the 21st century was a single school year, we would just be returning from Thanksgiving Break. How appropriate! We\u2019ve had a great start-up, but we are\u00a0more\u00a0than a seventh\u00a0of the way though the century already; if we are not already,\u00a0it\u2019s time to get moving!<\/p>\n

The World is Analog<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe live in a Digital World\u201d \u2013 let this\u00a0be the 88,901th\u00a0search result on Google for that exact phrase. And you should absolutely watch the\u00a0first one<\/a>. But it isn\u2019t true that we do. For all the 0s and 1s tucked into a CD (which aren\u2019t actually 0 and 1, they are carved out, physical divets in plastic), the speakers or earphones that create\u00a0the actual sound are analog. The World is Analog.<\/p>\n

\"\"
David Sax talking analog at #firesideconf<\/figcaption><\/figure>David Sax is an author, journalist and mensch. He\u2019s one of my oldest friends and we have had over a decade of conversations about the role of technology (here, I mean communication technologies such as social media and other text-based messages)\u00a0and phatic relationships, including those relationships which are so vital in Education contexts.\u00a0He is writing his third\u00a0book, this one about the Revenge of Analog and how certain elements of digital culture giving way to their original, analog counterparts. I am excited to read his book and I know it\u00a0will be relevant to the important decisions we make as teachers, as we continue to use screen-based devices in ways that enhance teaching and learning, and pay credence to their human impact\u00a0on\u00a0transactional communication and positive educational relationships.<\/p>\n

A Screen-Free Tech Conference<\/h3>\n

In September, I attended the first ever #firesideconf<\/a> \u2013 a screen-free tech conference held at the camp where David Sax and I met. The immersive retreat was co-organized\u00a0by Steven Pulver, another old friend, lawyer\/MBA and former camp colleague. When do we start referring to people we work with as \u2018colleagues\u2019? Certainly sometime after<\/em> being\u00a0teenagers working together at a summer camp! Anyway, he and Daniel Levine wanted to gather people working broadly in Toronto\u2019s Tech Community to a weekend of sharing ideas in the analog context that a camp provides \u2013 \u00a0communal eating and living, outdoor activities and the creative, open mindset promoted by \u201cmusical flutterboards\u201d and the agony and ecstasy\u00a0of sitting outdoors in cold overcast\u00a0weather next to a warm\u00a0raging campfire.<\/p>\n

\"\"
#firesideconf in Bancroft, Ontario<\/figcaption><\/figure>It was a really inspiring thing,\u00a0to be part of an inaugural event, living the emotions of its organizers and helping actively to contribute as a member of a new community, to its overall success. I came away with a few new ideas worth keeping, in particular one from Steve Tam of Indiegogo<\/a> articulating a new space that exists between work and life \u2013 not a balance carved out of each domain, but an actual third zone. Meeting new people always provides opportunity to gain and share perspectives, and what better place to do it then on the waterski dock.<\/p>\n

To A Worm In Horseradish\u2026<\/h3>\n

To a worm in Horseradish, the world is Horseradish<\/em>. I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of hearing this old yiddish expression in Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s 2006 Ted Talk about Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce<\/a>. \u00a0It resonates with me because I know the value of stepping outside our\u00a0usual zone, adopting new stances to help us\u00a0perceive challenges\u00a0(and ourselves) differently, hearing the language that\u00a0other industries use to approach solving problems in the work we\u00a0also do, and to open ourselves up to\u00a0questions we didn\u2019t think to ask and ideas we didn\u2019t know we were missing.<\/p>\n

Cohort 21 helps me experience this through Face-to-Face meetings and the relationships that translate into online interaction in between them. I\u2019m excited for my involvement\u00a0with Cohort 21 (2015-2016)<\/a>\u00a0to challenge\u00a0me, once again, to step out of the horseradish!<\/p>\n

\"What's<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember summer? How softly it shut!\u00a0\u00a0Now, we\u00a0find ourselves\u00a0waking\u00a0up at the usual time \u2013 usual\u00a0for school \u2013 with the sunrise\u00a0suddenly missing, and it strikes in\u00a0discord\u00a0against\u00a0the light within! I feel better\u00a0knowing\u00a0that\u00a0it\u2019s time to\u00a0start again with a new team of coaches for another great year of Cohort 21. I couldn\u2019t be more excited! My\u00a0year of learning so far … <\/p>\n

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